RER gets go-ahead on demo plant

The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has given formal notice that Rare Element Resources (RER) and General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) may enter into negotiations for a financial award for engineering, construction and operation of a rare earth demonstration plant. According to RER, this is the next step in its long-term plan to open a rare earth mine in the Bear Lodge Mountains.

The demo plant project will be pursued in conjunction with GA Europe’s Umwelt-und Ingenieurtechnik GmbH (UIT) and LNV, an Ardurra Group, Inc. company, and will make use of ore from the Bear Lodge rare earth deposit.

“We are working hard to plan the construction of this facility and to ensure it can be in Wyoming. The demonstration plant project will demonstrate the separation and purification of rare earth oxides derived from ore that has already been removed from RER’s Bear Lodge deposit in Crook Co., Wyoming,” says George Byers, RER Advisory Board.

“In other words, and this is important, no additional permitting is required from the Forest Service to allow the removal of this ore for the demonstration plant – its excavation occurred in the summer of 2015 and the ore has been stored on site since then.”

According to a press release from GA-EMS, the Bear Lodge is endowed with critical rare earth elements essential for high-strength permanent magnets, electronics, fiber optics, laser systems for health and defense, and commercial technologies such as electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines.

“For many years, General Atomics’ involvement in the development, design and production of advanced technology defense and energy systems has made us keenly aware of our nation’s urgent need to secure a domestic supply of critical rare earth elements for national and commercial applications,” said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS.

“Today, China controls approximately 80% of the world’s rare earth elements supply. Developing domestic rare earth element resources and separation technology has the potential to improve supply and availability.”

The DoE announced in January that it had selected RER and its partners, General Atomics, and affiliates to receive an award of $21,989,530 to construct this demo plant. The plant is expected to cost around $35-40 million and, says Byers, “Will use the proprietary concentration and separation process developed by Rare Element Resources and General Atomics.” 

“GA-EMS brings a depth of expertise in successfully managing large, complex, multi-year government programs, and specifically Government Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)-compliant programs,” said Forney in last week’s press release.

“Along with RER, LNV and our GA affiliate UIT, this team brings the resources, experience and technologies together to efficiently design, engineer, construct and operate a facility for the separation and processing of rare earth ore to meet the nation’s requirements.”